The present invention relates generally to video games and, more particularly, to a video game and a peripheral for a video game.
Video games provide fun and enjoyment for many. Video games allow game players to participate in a variety of simulated activities. Video games allow game players to perform roles and experience activities that the game players may not be able or desire to experience directly, whether due to cost, danger, or equipment concerns, or simply due to a role or activity being a fantasy.
Video games, being generally provided by way of an electronic device and associated display, often lack a physical component by which a player may touch and hold a representative object associated with video game play or otherwise have a physical object representative of video game play. Merely interacting with a displayed simulated environment may not allow game players to fully relate to game play, with a sharply distinct separation between a game play world and the world physically inhabited by the game players. Moreover, when the electronic device providing game play action is unavailable, for example when off or used for other purposes, as may often by the case when the electronic device is a personal computer, reminders of the joy of game play may also be unavailable. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/109,956, assigned to the present assignee and incorporated by reference in its entirety, describes examples of video games including physical objects (e.g., toys) associated with video game play. The toys may have an associated identifier which allows for virtual use in a video game of a game character associated with the toy.
New versions of a video game may be released over time, and the new versions of the video game may have new (in whole or in part) toys and associated game characters. The characters associated with the new toys may have different features or capabilities, possibly not contemplated by designers of earlier games, and the toys themselves may have features or capabilities, similarly possibly not envisioned by designers of earlier games. Users of earlier games, however, may desire to be able to enjoy use of the new toys and associated characters, but these users may be unable or unwilling to invest in or acquire the newer versions of the video game.